#the thing with sutures is we know they could perform them because we have evidence of mummies being stitched up

[rudjedet]

I'm on the tail end of physical therapy for a broken leg that required surgery. It made me wonder if there was anything interesting in Ancient Egyptian medicine that you'd read about treating broken bones.

Oh, certainly! Ancient Egyptian treatments for broken bones were very similar to our methods nowadays - that is, they splinted and immobilised fractures after reduction. The treatments for a broken jaw and a broken nose in the Edwin Smith Papyrus (the largest collection of surgical treatments among the medical papyri) are in fact the exact same a few millennia later. For a broken nose in particular, the physician put two rolls of linnen moistened with oil into the nasal passages to keep the shape of the nose intact after bandaging and during healing. Nowadays, we use vaseline gauze the same way.

There's an interesting case in the ESP where the practice of a closed reduction is actually described. This is case 35, a fracture of the clavicle:

You should prostrate him [on his back], [with] something folded which is in [between] his shoulder blades. You should spread out his two shoulders in order to stretch apart his two clavicles until that fracture falls into its place.

This is, again, a practice that has changed very little over time. Interestingly this case does also describe a splinting, but a splinting that seems incongruent with the actual type of fracture:

You should then make for him two splints of linen, and place them, one of them to the inside of his upper arm, and the other to the under site of his upper arm. You should bind it with imrw* and treat him afterwards with honey every day until he recovers.

That would have done very little to stabilise the clavicle. However, the next case, number 36, deals with a fracture of the humerus. This case first details a reduction, but that reduction is the exact same as the preceding one in case 35, just with the term for humerus substituted for the term for clavicle. A fractured humerus is normally set through the use of traction, and then splinted in the way described in case 35.

Nunn, among others including myself, is of the opinion that this is a scribal error where the splinting for case 36 was appended to case 35, and the reduction for case 36 was incorrectly copied from 35.

But overall, lots of evidence that nothing much changed about the setting and treatment of broken bones!

*We haven't been able to precisely determine the meaning of the ingredient imrw so far. As a term it's only found in the ESP and it is likely some type of mineral ingredient since it's written with the determinative for mineral substances. Nunn suggests it may be an equivalent of plaster of Paris used for splinting as we do nowadays, which would be supported with the phrase "you should bind it with imrw" in case 35. I don't agree with that, not only because "bind it with [x]" sees common use elsewhere for any number of poultices and bandaging in the medical papyri, but also because imrw is used in the treatment of other cases that don’t deal with fractures, such as case 15; a slashed cheek with damage to the zygomatic bone. The Grundriss der Medizin der Alten Ägypter simply lists it as "an unknown mineral substance". Brawanski wants to read it as an "astringent bandage" with the note that the determinative could be ambiguous, so he suggests a reading of a bandaging with metal shavings. Meltzer renders it as “alum(?)”, based on similarities to the Coptic term for alum. Personally, I think it's likeliest a mineral/metallic substance, one that possibly inhibits bacterial growth, akin to e.g. red ochre, and which was used in bandaging and poultices.

Good luck with the rest of the physical therapy and rehab! Surgery-requiring fractures are a nsw.t=f m pH.wy=s

[iamtrebleclefstories]

Everything They Say is True

Jo and Alex don't really broadcast their relationship to everyone. Sure, they are excited to be together, but it's no one's business but theirs. For those who don't know about their relationship status, things can get awkward very quickly.

-or-

A fic that takes place within Grey's Anatomy canon

Hi guys! This surprise fic was born out of a dream I had last night and I wrote the majority of it while on my lunch break lol. I hope you guys enjoy this little piece of jolex fluff before I post chapter 9 of Didn't Think.

-Takes place during early season 10-

“God, is being outrageously hot a requirement to be hired as an attending at this hospital?” Gia Holt whispered to the young woman sitting beside her.

Anna Vargas looked over at the group of attending surgeons sitting together at a lunch table and chuckled softly, “It would seem so. I mean look at them. If one of them asked me to open my legs, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

“Same here,” Gia replied. “And I have absolutely no shame in saying that.”

“You know I’ve been thinking that maybe it’s a balancing act,” Anna said.

Gia furrowed her brow, “What do you mean?”

“Well,” Anna started. “Being a surgical intern is hell. We are run ragged on a daily basis. So it would be unjust if we were expected to do all this work without some sort of compensation. So, the hospital gods blessed us with eye candy.”

Gia laughed amused at her friend’s deduction, “I like how you think, Anna. But, I would hardly consider eye candy as enough to make up for the hardship of being an intern. You know we’re always on someone’s service, doing scut and everything that can’t be bothered to do. If we’re serving them on a daily basis, it would only be fair that they serviced us.”

Anna’s eyes widened as she processed her friend’s words, “Gia!”

“What? I’m being honest. How nice would it be to be taught new skills by our attendings outside of the OR?”

“You are something else, Gi.” Anna shook her head.

“Come on,” Gia huffed. “You have to have at least thought about it. I mean, you’re bi so you have your pick of whoever you want.”

“Very true,” Anna nodded. “But I don’t think I’d actually do it. Maybe a resident, but an attending? I don’t think I have the guts to do that. If you want to though, go for it. Maybe you’ll get lucky and get a surgery or two out of sleeping with one of them.”

“So which one should I make a pass at?” 

Anna scrunched her face in thought, “Well first, you should probably figure out who isn’t married and go from there. I know Shepherd and Grey are hitched so hot neurosurgeon is off the table.” 

“That’s a shame,” Gia sighed. “I wonder if Avery and that resident Edwards are together. I saw them making out in the hallway a few months ago. If they are I can’t blame her. I mean, look at those eyes.” 

Anna hummed in agreeance, “Every time I’ve had to work with him I try not to look into his eyes so that he doesn’t see that I’m secretly melting internally. He’s definitely pretty, but I don’t think he’s what you’re looking for. He doesn’t strike me for the guy who would let you in on a surgery because you gave him some ass.”

“True,” Gia said thoughtfully. “I feel like he’s the type to give you a really nice gift after sex, but not to let you scrub in. Not that I’m looking to have sex with an attending so that I can scrub in. I’m a good doctor. I can get in on a surgery by my own merit. I just really want some hot sex with a hot guy and the guys in our class don't seem… up for the task.”

“Ooh!” Anna exclaimed. “What about Karev? The peds attending? He’s stupid hot and great with kids.”

Gia gasped, “You know what, I heard that he slept with basically all the female interns from last year’s class--some of the nurses too--so he’s not above it. From what I’ve heard, he’s really good at it too. He’s hot, got a stellar reputation in the sack, and he’s good with kids. Not that I want kids right now, but it says a lot about your character if kids like you.” 

“I agree,” Anna nodded as they continued to finish their lunch. They made casual conversation before receiving pages to the pit from their resident. “You just get a page from Wilson?”

“Yeah to the pit. I wonder what happened that she had to page both of us. Did something big happen?” Gia threw her garbage away as she and Anna started running down towards the ER. 

Anna shrugged, “I don’t know. I haven’t heard anything. I sure hope it’s something good. I would really love to get to see the inside of an OR today.” 

*****

Jo Wilson had hoped for a light day today. It had started off as a pretty quiet day. She and Alex started their morning in the shower with some hot shower sex and then stopped for breakfast at their favorite donut shop. When they got to work, she did rounds, assigned her interns to their posts and then proceeded to perform an appy on a seventeen year old. She had just scrubbed out when she decided to go down to the pit to answer any surgery consults. She spent a few hours down in the ER when she got pulled aside into any empty linen closet. She smiled widely when she realized who it was and turned to kiss Alex. 

"Hey, how's Micky? I heard you're trying to find an alternative treatment option for his Wilms tumor."

"Yeah, we couldn't get the entire thing the first time around so I'm hoping with a little bit of chemo we'll be able to shrink it enough to get good margins. And since—as of ten minutes ago—you're on my service for the next two weeks, you'll be scrubbing in with me on that and any other cool thing that comes our way." Alex grinned widely at his girlfriend. 

Jo's eyes widened in glee, "Really? Wait, why am I on your service for two weeks? You didn't request me just because I let you in my pants on a daily basis?"

Alex scoffed, "Please. My friends own the hospital, I can put whoever I want on my service. But to answer your question, no it's not because you are a great lay or because I love you. It's because you're an amazing doctor and are going to become a really damn good surgeon one day. Maybe even a peds surgeon. And I don't let just anyone work on peds. Peds is hardcore. I'm not gonna let just anyone hack up a kid. I'm gonna let the best, and you are the best."

Jo grinned before kissing him again, "You are the best boyfriend and attending ever."

"I know," Alex smirked. "Okay I'm going to get lunch. Want to join me?"

"I wish I could but I just started some sutures on a lady in bed 4."

"Get one of your interns to do it. That's what they're here for."

"I would but they are currently having lunch and I'm almost done anyway. I'll come eat when I'm finished."

Alex looked at her skeptically. Knowing his girlfriend, Jo would probably forget to eat and then later in the evening he'd end up having to buy her one of everything off the menu at Joe's. "Alright, I'll see you later."

About fifteen minutes later, Jo had finally discharged the woman she had been suturing. She was about to make her way to the cafeteria when a nurse called out to her, "Dr. Wilson! There is a rig about three minutes out with a five year old girl that received trauma to the lower ribcage, upper abdomen after falling from a tree at school. There don't seem to be any breaks but paramedics are concerned with a possible collapsed lung and fluid build up in the abdomen."

" Okay, page Dr. Karev and my interns, Holt and Vargas. And have cardio on standby. "

" Right away, Doctor Wilson."

Jo sighed before gowning up and going to the ambulance bay to wait for the rig, "So much for going to lunch," She muttered to herself. Seconds later, she heard footsteps walking behind her. Turning to see her interns now gowned up she gives them a small smile before filling them in on the situation. "Vargas, go prepare trauma two and get a portable ultrasound and x-ray ready. Holt, make sure we have a peds cart ready and a chest tray for a suspected pneumothorax. I'll retrieve the patient. The ambulance is one minute out so please be quick."

The two young women nodded at their resident and ran to prepare for the little girl about to come in. When the paramedics arrived, Jo hurried and ushered the small child into the trauma room that had been prepared. She was taking the young girls vitals when Alex walked into the room. 

“You paged me? What do we got?” 

“Lizzie Graham, five years old. She fell fifteen feet out of a tree at recess. She’s got a pneumothorax and fluid build up in the abdomen. There isn't any evidence of fractures, just some nasty bruising. We just took her x-rays and are about to perform an ultrasound,” Jo sighed. “Her O2 levels are low and she’s got unequal breath sounds. She needs a chest tube.” 

Alex furrowed his brows. He always hated this part. Chest tubes hurt like a bitch--he knew that from experience. He looked over to the two interns in the room, “Did someone contact her parents yet?”

“Yes,” Holt replied. “They are on their way to the hospital as we speak. One of her teachers is out in the waiting room.” 

"Good," Alex looked over to Jo who had prepared the chest tube. Crouching down by the whimpering child, he smoothed down her hair in a comforting manner. "Hey Lizzie. My name is Dr. Alex. I heard that you took a fall today. We're gonna try our best to help you feel better. But in order to feel better, you're going to feel some pain first. The pain is going to help you breathe, so I need you to be brave for me. Can you do that? Can you be brave?"

Lizzie nodded tearfully, "Hold my hand?"

Jo's heart broke at the little girl's request, "Hey Lizzie, my name is Dr. Jo. Dr. Alex needs both of his hands in order to help you breathe but you can hold mine and squeeze as tight as you want."

They got the tube in and proceeded to perform the ultrasound, "Looks like a ruptured spleen and appendix. She might have a liver lac, but we won't know until we get in there. Holt, book an OR and prep Lizzie. Vargas, stay out here and let me know as soon as her parents arrive. Be sure to keep an eye on my pre and post-ops while Wilson and I are in surgery."

The interns nodded, "Yes Dr. Karev."

*****

The surgery went well. They ended up having to remove both Lizzie's spleen and appendix, but Alex was confident that Lizzie would make a full recovery. They were on their way out to speak to the young girl’s parents who had arrived at the hospital twenty minutes after they went in for surgery. Alex went up to the pair and motioned for Jo to follow him while the interns stood a couple feet off to the side, “Hi my name is Doctor Karev. You must be Lizzie’s parents."

The couple sprung up from their seats frantically, “Yes! How is she? How is our daughter?”

“She is doing just fine. She came in with a ruptured spleen and appendix. Doctor Wilson and I were able to remove both the spleen and appendix. Thankfully, she did not break any bones during the fall so her recovery will last about four to six weeks. I’d like to keep her here in the hospital for about a week for observation, but if everything goes well, she’ll be good to go home when the time is over.” Alex replied to the parents.

“Can we see her?” Mrs. Graham asked.

“Lizzie is in recovery right now, but I can have one of my interns take you to her room to wait for her to arrive. She will be groggy and possibly in a bit of pain, but all of that is completely normal. We will come in to check on her in about an hour to two hours to ensure everything is okay.” Jo smiled at the worried pair. She turned over to her interns, “Holt, you take the Graham’s up to Lizzie’s room? Vargas, make sure to continue to keep an eye on Doctor Karev’s pre and post ops. Both of you keep us posted if anything changes.” Both interns left to do their tasks.

“You did great in there today,” Alex complimented as he and Jo walked down the hall.

Jo grinned cheekily, “Thank you. You were a wonderful teacher as always. So, do we have any more surgeries scheduled for the day?”

"Just a hernia repair in about an hour. Shouldn't take more than 45 minutes to do. And I've been thinking, I might let you take the lead on this one."

"Really?"

"Yeah. You know how we do things; see one, do one, teach one. You've seen hernia repairs done before, and you've assisted with them, so today you lead and I'll assist."

Jo grabbed Alex’s hand and pulled him into the empty on-call room down the hall and smiled, “You sir, are doing a very good job if your goal was to get into my pants for the second time today.”

“Am I?” Alex feigned innocence. He kissed her deeply before speaking again, “Lock the door.” 

*****

Laying in the afterglow had become one of Jo’s favorite parts of sex with Alex. She had never experienced such security and love as she did when she was in his arms. She snuggled closer to him and closed her eyes for a brief moment. Alex was caressing her back when her stomach growled loudly, ruining the moment. 

“Dude, I thought I told you to eat lunch,” Alex chastised. 

“I was going to… but then Lizzie came into the ER and I got pulled into a 4 hour surgery.”

“Jo, all you’ve had all day is a powdered sugar donut and a medium coffee. You’re a doctor, you of all people should know that’s not healthy.”

“Wow, you’re one to talk. If I can recall correctly, not too long ago I was the one getting on your ass about eating right,” Jo reminded.

“Shut up,” Alex glared playfully. “Come on. Let’s get something for you to eat. We got the hernia repair in fifteen minutes.” 

They each bought a snack and went to check in on their patient before getting ready for surgery. After assuring the nervous parents, Alex looked over to the interns, “Hey, Holt and Vargas! Wilson is going to be performing the hernia removal today and I think it would be good for you to observe your resident performing a procedure. You’ll both scrub in and take turns holding the retractor and observing. We’ll meet you in the OR.”

“You know, before I was an intern, you would have never been so eager to teach. I think dating a resident has made you soft,” Jo teased as the two of them entered the scrub room. 

Alex rolled his eyes as he scrubbed. They walked into the operating room and looked down at the young patient; eleven year old Hunter Miller. The interns were ready and standing around the OR table. Alex nodded reassuringly as Jo took a deep stabilizing breath, “Alright Jo. The floor is yours. You’ve got this. Don’t second-guess or underestimate yourself. Remember what I always say--”

“You wouldn’t let me hack into a kid just because you like me. You let me in on a surgery because I’m good,” Jo finished.

“Exactly,” he smiled through his mask. “Now, just walk me through everything and take the time to teach your interns about what is going on.”

She nodded and began. They were about halfway through the hernia repair when Alex felt confident enough in Jo’s abilities to begin a conversation, “So Mer wants us to go to Joe’s bar tonight. Something about Yang’s birthday and tequila shots. Doesn’t want to make a huge deal about it, but thought it would be fun to invite a whole bunch of people for shots.”

Jo looked up from her work skeptically, “Did Grey really invite me or did she invite you?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes it matters. Grey hates me.”

“No she doesn’t.” 

“Yes she does.”

“Jo, Mer does not hate you. She likes you, trust me. You know, one time she even told me she thinks you're a badass.” 

Jo snorted, “Well she sure has a funny way of showing it.”

“She told me to invite you. And you won’t be the only resident. She’s inviting Ross and Edwards too so you’ll have friends. Besides, you live with Cristina so it would look really bad if you didn’t show up to her birthday shots and she saw you lounging in your sweats on the couch with a beer and a tub of popcorn,” Alex said. 

“You live with Dr. Yang?” Vargas asked.

Jo and Alex looked over at the intern in surprise, almost forgetting that they were not alone, “Yeah we live in the same house. We both crash with Alex. I’m surprised he hasn’t kicked us out yet.” 

“Shut up… I need the rent check."

“Wait, so you all live in one house together?” Holt asked.

“I like to lovingly refer to it as the frat house. Everyone has lived there at some point,” Jo replied.

“It used to be Grey’s house. A lot of the attendings have lived there at some point. Shepherd, Kepner, Avery, and some people who aren’t around anymore. It was always open for anyone who needed a place to stay,” Alex shared. “I bought it from her last year and kept up the tradition.” 

Jo laughed, "I really don't know why you think Yang would notice if I’m there or not. It’s not like we’re close.”

“Look, I’d rather be lounging on the couch in my sweats watching old reruns of Friends or Modern Family, drinking beer too but if I have to go, you have to go.”

“They’re your best friends, though!” 

“Come on Jo,” Alex pleaded. “If you go and decide to leave early then I’ll have an excuse to leave because we came in the same car this morning. Also, don’t forget you’re on my service for the next few weeks. I can make your life hell.”

“Woah,” Jo looked up from the patient. “That sounds a bit like coercion.”

Alex gave her an unimpressed look, “Please. I’m begging here. And you know I don’t beg. I can’t handle another night of hearing about Mer’s McDreamy issues and Cristina’s weird arrangement with her not-husband.”

Jo exhaled, “Okay. Fine I’ll go. But you’re buying everything.”

“Deal.”

The rest of the surgery goes extremely well. Jo completed the repair perfectly. The four doctors are in the process of scrubbing out when Alex spoke up again, “You know, Holt and Vargas, you should meet us at Joe’s to celebrate. Your resident just performed a hernia repair on her own on  a peds patient and you both assisted. So drinks are on me tonight!’

The interns nodded in excitement and confirmed that they would be at the bar that night at seven o’clock. Alex sent them off to do a couple tasks while he and Jo went to check on Lizzie and a few of his other patients. 

*****

“Can you believe it? Karev invited us out for drinks later!” Gia screeched excitedly. “This might be easier than I thought.”

“It is exciting,” Anna agreed. “We hardly ever get to spend time with everyone outside the hospital. So who knows, maybe even I will get laid tonight. You might want to wait before you make a movie on Karev, though.  I am trying to figure out though, if Wilson and Karev are sleeping together.”

“Why would you think that?” Gia asked.

“Wilson is only a second year resident living with two attendings. There’s no way she could’ve moved in with them as an intern unless she was already friends with one of them, and from the conversation in the OR, I can tell that she’s not close to Yang. Her and Karev seem really close, but I can’t tell if they’re just friends or if she’s sleeping with him. I mean, he just let her take point on a surgery. Karev is known for being horrible to interns and residents. So I’m wondering if they’re friends with benefits.”

Gia tilted her head to the side, “You make a good point there. She may have already beat me to him… either way I think I’ll still try. Maybe they are sleeping together, maybe they aren’t exclusive, maybe they’re just friends. I don’t know, but Karev is hot and so am I, and we could have some really hot sex, so I’m gonna make a move. The worst he can say is no.” 

They walked into the bar and saw Wilson sitting with Ross and Edwards at the bar. Off to the side, Karev was standing at a table with Yang and Grey, rolling his eyes at something they said. Doctor Grey gets the attention of the surrounding doctors before speaking, “Alright as many of you may know, today is Cristina’s birthday so we’re going to do some shots! If you are a doctor at Grey-Sloan, then please make your way over to the bar as we toast to everyone’s favorite cardiothoracic surgeon.”

A string of laughter and teasing could be heard as everyone took hold of their tequila shots and lifted them up, “To Doctor Yang.”

“To Doctor Yang!”

The atmosphere lightened up a bit and distinctions between superiors and subordinates blurred as the alcohol made its way around the room. Alex left his friends and made his wave over to where Jo was sitting at the bar and waved over Holt and Vargas. He looked over to the bartender and began to order some drinks, “Hey man. Can I get a beer for me, a vodka and coke for Jo, I don’t know what those two want but it’s on me.”

“I’ll take a martini and Anna will have a cosmopolitan,” Gia answered. 

After each receiving their drinks, Alex raised his glass, “To a great day of saving tiny humans. It’s not everyday that you treat a kid that’s gonna make it, but today we did.” 

The group cheered and downed their drinks. About an hour had passed, and everyone was starting to feel some of the effects of the alcohol. Alex became more flirty than usual. His statements were suggestive and oftentimes. Jo was a giggler. She found everything mildly hilarious and more often than not, lost an item or two of clothes in the process. So far, she had shed the cardigan she’d been wearing. Interns on the other hand, became more bold when drinking alcohol. Gia especially, had her inhibitions lowered and decided that she would finally make her move on Karev. 

“So Karev, when was the last time you picked someone up in the bar?” Gia asked.

Alex laughed, “Honestly, I don’t remember.”

“Oh please,” Jo rolled her eyes. “I’m sure you remember. It couldn’t have been that long ago. You’d come here every other day with Avery while I was dating Jason and couldn’t hang out with you.”

“I’m serious,” Alex swore. “The last time I came to the bar and tried to pick someone up was last year before Mer, and everyone bought the hospital. I’m out of practice.”

“There’s no way,” Jo shook her head in disbelief. “You did not go that long without a bar hookup.”

“But I did,” Alex nodded. 

Sensing that this might finally be her moment, Gia exchanged a glance with an equally tipsy Anna and turned to Alex, “Well, we have to fix that don’t we?”

“Huh?” Alex scrunched his face at the intern.

Jo--who had understood what was going on--burst out into laughter. She considered saying something and staking her claim on Alex, but decided to let him suffer and see what his reaction would be. 

Gia smiled flirtily and placed her hand on Alex’s arm, “You said you’re out of practice, so how about I help you break your dry streak?”

Alex’s eyes widened comically as he finally caught on to what the young woman was suggesting. His eyebrows raised and he opened his mouth in shock, closing it dumbly when words failed to come out. He looked over to Jo for assistance, only to find that she was laughing so hard that tears were trailing down her cheeks. Alex laughed awkward and attempted to say something again, “Um… I’m good, thanks.”

“Oh come on, there’s no need to be shy,” Gia winked. “I know you aren’t. Your reputation speaks for itself, and I for one would not mind finding out if all they say is true.”

Alex looked at Jo with desperation in his eyes. Finally deciding to have mercy on him, she turned to her intern with an amused look on her face, “Alex won’t be going home with you tonight.”

“Why not?” Gia asked, seeming mildly offended.

“Because, tonight, Alex will be going home with me,” Jo supplied. “Just like he does every night, because I’m his girlfriend and he no longer needs to pick up random women in bars.”

Both Gia and Anna’s faces paled at Jo’s confession. Gia began to stutter her apologies to her resident when Jo interrupted her, “Holt. Relax. I get it, trust me. He’s hot.”

Alex, who had been observing the scene, felt his ears get hot, “Jo…”

“I’m serious,” Jo grinned. “No hard feelings. You didn’t know. But now you do, so if I see or hear of you making another pass at my boyfriend, you will be drowning in scut.” 

Gia nodded and buried her face in her hands in embarrassment. Anna placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, “I guess I was right, huh?”

“I’m thinking I should’ve listened to you when you suggested that they might be a thing,” Gia cringed. 

Deciding it was time to leave and allow the poor intern to wallow in her embarrassment, Alex pulled Jo up and started to guide her out the door. Just as the two of them were about to walk out the door, Jo stopped and gave Gia sly smirk, “Oh and just so you know, everything they say about him is true.” 

[trentteti]

Dealing with Super Abstract Answer Choices on the LSAT

I suppose this should come with a spoiler warning, but it’ll soon be very clear why such a warning is unnecessary. Anyway, here’s a non-exhaustive list of correct answers on recent Logical Reasoning questions:

“two different states of affairs could each causally contribute to the same effect even though neither causally contributes to the other.”

“showing that something that would be impossible if a particular thesis were correct is actually true”

“inferring that one specific response to a problem is necessary without considering another equally supported response”

“It is a statement for which no evidence is provided and that is part of the evidence offered for the argument’s only conclusion”

“treats the failure to satisfy a condition that brings about a particular outcome as if satisfying that condition is the only way to realize the outcome”

“fails to address the substantive point of the criticism that it is responding to”

Taken on their own, these sentences are essentially meaningless. They’re haphazardly constructed word salads, the main ingredients of which are unclear referents, doublebacking syntax, and poorly drawn distinctions. Above all else, these answer choices are abstract to the point of meaninglessness. Malarkey, in our non-scientific opinion.

Of course, read outside of the context of the question they’re attached to, any answer choice should be harder to understand. But, trust me, these answer choices aren’t much easier to understand when read as part of an entire question. These answer choice were from questions about, respectively, medical self-help books, Andy Warhol’s Brillo Boxes, unprofessional workplace behavior, the probability of life in other solar systems, the possibility of self-forgiveness, and automobiles equipped with communication devices — not that you’d have any idea by reading these answer choices. In fact, I’d argue that understanding these answer choices after reading the question is in some ways even harder, since you have to survive the shock of realizing these answer choices make no explicit reference to the subject matter of the question.

So, this raises the question, what gives? An important realization that everyone studying for the LSAT must make, early on, is that the subject matter of a Logical Reasoning question isn’t terribly important. What matters instead are the underlying logical concepts these questions test. We have to train ourselves to look past the garnishes these questions use, to get to the actual meat of these questions. And as the above answer choices illustrate sometimes you really have to look past the subject matter, since the correct answer won’t even reference it. This is especially true on Flaw, Role, and Describe questions; it has become even more true on recent LSATs, where the answer choices have gotten really abstract.

Let’s talk about some strategies to deal with this pesky trend of abstraction. How can we reliably parse these answer choices, so that we understand what they’re saying and confirm that they are correct (or verify that they’re incorrect)?

Well, do you remember playing Mad Libs as a kid? Or did those not survive the new Millennium? Did that reference make me sound even more like the pile of dust that my ripened old age already makes me feel? OK, if you didn’t play them as a kid, maybe remember them showing up in a famous scene from Friends? I’m told that you young people can’t get enough of that show on Netflix.

Anyway, the gist of Mad Libs: There would be a basic template for an amusing short story, except they’d remove key nouns, adjectives, and verbs. Before you’d read the story, you’d provide your own nouns, adjectives and verbs, which you would then fill into the blank-spaces of the template. You’d then read the story, with your own words filled in, to a group of friends (or, if you were perhaps a shy budding LSAT blogger, alone in your room), and non-sequitur-based hilarity would ensue.

I don’t think Mad Libs creators Leonard Stern and Roger Price anticipated that their party game would provide a strategy to tackle LSAT questions. But that’s exactly what they did.

When you see an answer choice get hopelessly abstract — as all the above answer choices do — start playing Mad Libs. But instead of making up your own referents, use the stimulus to fill in the blanks. Here’s what I mean:

Let’s take the first answer choice, from a Flaw question on the November 2018 exam. That answer choice said that the argument is flawed because it overlooks the fact that “two different states of affairs could each causally contribute to the same effect even though neither causally contributes to the other.” Just by reading that, it’s tough to determine what those “two different states of affairs” are or what “same effect” is.

So let’s remove those from the answer choice, so the answer choice now reads: “________ and ________ could each causally contribute to ________ even though neither causally contribute to the other.” If we really wanted to make this easier to understand (which I think is always a good idea), let’s simplify some of the language — “causally contributes to” is just a long-winded way of saying “causes,” so let’s rephrase this to: “________ and ________ could each cause ________ even though neither causes the other.”

In the first blank, we’ll put one “state of affairs” from the stimulus that apparently causes some effect, in the second blank we’ll put the second “state of affairs” from the stimulus that also apparently causes some effect, and in the third blank, we’ll put the effect. Here’s what the stimulus said:

Researcher: In an experiment, 500 families were given a medical self-help book, and 500 similar families were not. Over the next year, the average number of visits to doctors dropped by 20 percent for the families who had been given the book but remained unchanged for the other families. Since improved family health leads to fewer visits to doctors, the experiment indicates that having a medical self-help book in the home improves family health.

Reading this, I think we can determine the two states of affairs the answer choice is talking about are being given a medical self-help book and improving family health. And the effect the answer choice refers to is fewer visits to the doctor. Apparently, being given a medical self-help book and improving family health might lead to fewer doctors visits, according to this researcher. So, as the researcher concludes, having a medical self-help book causes your family health to improve.

We can now fill in the blanks of that answer choice, so it reads that the argument overlooks that “Being given a medical self-help book and improved family health could each cause fewer visits to the doctor even though neither causes the other.”

Now this strategy didn’t result in the same giggle-fits that a good Mad Libs would, but at least it makes that answer choice way easier to understand. It makes sense — you might go to the doctor less often because you have a medical-self help book, and you might go to the doctor less because your family is healthier, but that doesn’t mean your family is in better health because of the medical self-help book.

Not only can we understand this answer choice, we can hopefully now clearly understand how it describes a flaw in the argument. In the researcher’s argument, we only had evidence that the families who were given the self-help book were going to the doctors less. We don’t know that they’re actually in better health. If they’re using the self-help book for, I don’t know, medically complex procedures like suturing knife wounds or performing makeshift, DIY appendectomies, they could actually be in worse health, walking around with infected wounds and misdiagnosed maladies. So the previously abstract answer choice makes sense — just because both the self-help book and improved health could result in fewer doctor visits, that doesn’t mean the self-help book is making the family healthier.

This same strategy can be used to eliminate incorrect answers as well. The second-most popular answer choice on that question says the argument is flawed because it overlooks that “a state of affairs could causally contribute to two or more different effects.”

What could the “two or more different effects” be in the researcher’s argument? Well, in this argument, having access to medical self-help books leads to more than one effect. Self-help books, according to the researcher, lead to fewer visits to the doctor and improved family health. Once we realize that, however, we should recognize that this is not something the researcher “overlooks” in the argument. That’s the whole point of the researcher’s argument! For the researcher, access to the self-help books are improving the families’ health, which leads to fewer doctors visits. Once we finish filling in the blanks, this answer choice presents something that the researcher just categorically does not overlook, so it can’t describe a flaw in the reasoning.

Other times, an answer choice will be wrong because it makes a reference to some abstract concept that the stimulus never mentions. If you can’t find something from the stimulus to fill in the blank in an answer choice, go ahead and eliminate that answer choice.

————

Whenever you see answer choices get confusingly abstract on Flaw, Role, or Describe questions, go to this Mad Libs strategy with the same enthusiasm of Pheobe Buffet in that Friends clip. At first, things will be slow-going and it’ll seem a little difficult. But like anything else on the LSAT, it gets easier and faster with practice. Watch, we can start practicing now, with our own Mad Libs

…

After practicing this approach from this         (Adjective)        blog post, I started         (Verb ending in “ing”)        previously difficult Logical Reasoning questions, eventually resulting in me earning a        (Desired LSAT score)        on the      (Date of the LSAT you plan to take)        LSAT.

Dealing with Super Abstract Answer Choices on the LSAT was originally published on LSAT Blog

[phylophe]

Only Human

The Mechanic observes his Magnum Opus. 

----- 

There’s something different about him - he’s used to that shit-eating grin of this asshole, and something about this one just doesn’t feel right.

“Where’s your doctor?” He asks as Four throws himself down onto his couch and stretches out, as if he owned the place.

“Aww, what if I just came over here because I missed you and your rough treatment?” The out-of-place smile is still there, and it feels more wrong by the moment. Still, the man’s committed to his acting, if nothing else, and keeps up the cocky composure even as he smears blood onto one of the new cushions. “Or maybe I just wanted to have a catch-up with my favourite mechanic?”

“Sure. In the small hours of the morning. Covered in dried blood. And… did you get shot?”

Four doesn’t retort immediately with some smart comment; only after a few seconds does he manage a feeble comeback. “I didn’t get shot. I got shot at, and they missed.”

“Nice try with the bullshit.” He doesn’t press further. He hasn’t seen Four so weak, so broken, so human, since the time he’d spent months putting the man’s body back together.

He doesn’t ask anymore questions, and Four doesn’t tell anymore lies. Two days later, he wakes up to find his couch empty.

Don’t do anything stupid, he thinks.

-----

But of course the bastard goes and does multiple stupid things.

Over the following weeks, the double-agent does an abysmal job of upholding that title, and ends up dirtying his couch three more times. The last of these times, his partner ended up having to actively hack into the government surveillance records and manually overwrite some files.

“Are you so full of crap that it’s finally filling up the space in your skull, shit-for-brains?” Four’s actions were reckless and selfish, so he figures he deserves a taste of his own medicine, if only in the form of a scolding. “Please tell me you’re fucking up on purpose, because if you’re getting us into trouble by actual stupidity, I’ll have to kick your ass myself.”

“Maybe I don’t have enough fibre in my diet?” Even while sedated, the shithead somehow musters up enough energy to pull a jerk-ass face, and he’d like nothing more than to put his fist in it, except his hands are currently occupied by clamps and a scalpel.

“I’m serious, Ilvait.” The emphasis on his real name does the trick - Four’s face grows stern and his eye sharpens with attention. “I couldn’t care less if you got your sorry ass handed to you and die in some rat-hole, but if you keep pulling crazy stunts and jeopardising the safety of the rest of us, I’ll go have a word with your superiors on both sides.”

Four doesn’t bother with a reply - that alone tells him that the agent’s streak of poor performance isn’t simply coincidental.

“What happened to your doctor?” His anger is diffusing a bit. He’s only human, after all.

Four supplies a single word: “Hrodna.”

The airstrike. They’d attacked not only the infantry, but also one of the field hospitals. “Did she die?”

“No.”

The gears turn in his head and the pieces click into place. “So are you going to do anything about that stick up your ass, before it migrates too high and gives you a heart attack or a stroke or something?”

“What do you suggest?” Four asks with his face turned away; he can’t say he likes it better when the asshole’s grinning, but he also can’t deny his pity for the guy. “Should I take a leaf out of your book: Insubordination For Dummies?”

“I thought you of all people would somehow find a way around it, what with all those nasty thoughts squirming around in there.” He cauterises a blood vessel with an electric scalpel. There’s some nerve damage and a number of small arteries need to be reconnected - procedures that are beyond his abilities. Four will have to get a proper doctor back at home. “Assuming you can even manage rational thought at this point.”

Four doesn’t respond. Oh my god, he’s actually listening.

“Look, if it’s bothering you to this extent - damned if you do and damned if you don’t - go take care of this personal shit before you fuck up everything else.” He puts down the scalpel and picks up a suturing needle, sighing as he turns back to his subject. “If it’s that difficult, I’ll do what I can. Marclai will help, too.”

He braces himself for a smug quip, perhaps preceded by a coy, overly-affectionate coo.

“Thanks.”

He didn’t expect that. “Don’t thank me.” He waves it off with a soft grunt. “I just don’t want me, or him, or anyone else getting caught up in this mess because you’re worried about your woman.”

Four is only human, after all. The reminder rings once again in his head. And nothing is more human than the weakness for love.

-----

He squints at the scanned document on the screen. It looks like a scientific paper, impeccably formatted with LaTeX, complete with figures, tables, and equations. The author had identified himself as ‘Ivan Mikael Fore’.

The text, however, consists of just one word: chicken, over and over. He glances over to the page count: Page 1/34. “What’s this?”

“Something that came to the attention of the general himself. Apparently one of his close associates - a civilian, to boot - got tipped off with this piece of intelligence.” His boss sounds exasperated through his headset. “It looks like a prank, but there’s a hidden message in this apparent nonsense.” A PDF file is opened, with a short message occupying a tiny fraction of the page:

on ap ril twen ty nin th at ze ro thr ee hund red ho urs th ere will be an acci den tal deto nat ion of a seri es of six und isco ver ed la ndmi nes five po int two ki lome tres sou the ast of the ca mp

He recalls a conversation he had with Marclai a couple of weeks ago. Apparently Four had requested access to the secured bunker where all the yet-to-be-defused explosives from previous wars are kept, and asked to have the records rewritten so the missing items couldn’t be traced. There was also something about drawing up a circuit involving a timer.

“Do you know anything about this, Haekel?” His silence probably answered that question already. Shit. “This has Ilvait written all over it, don’t you think?”

“I can’t say for certain, ma’am.” He fumbles with the mic of his headset. “What camp is this, if I may ask? Does the general have an idea? Any matches with anything in our records?”

“The general thinks it’s Dzisna.” Oh, damn it, Four. “The Naveau name has been popping up mysteriously lately - someone bumped the Hrodna-Dzisna case up the priority list, the password access to files of missing personnel has been removed by an unknown hacker, and rumours are gaining traction. The media loves it, of course, and wants to know what the military’s doing about it.”

“My apologies, but I don’t know anything about this chicken manuscript, ma’am.” He leans back in his chair, feeling both amazed and exasperated. “I can have my associate dig into the server’s logs if you wish - do some data-mining, see if anything turns up.”

“That’d be useful. I’ll send you the details after further discussions with the unit, then.” His boss sighs. “It just seems like too much of a coincidence, with Ilvait volunteering to be deployed to that month-long recon mission in Azerbaijan. Is he trying to create an alibi for himself?”

“I really don’t have an answer for that, but I’ll see what we can do, Major General.”

He waits until the electronic security scan is complete before turning to his partner. “You helped him, didn’t you, Ilya?”

He really pulled a leaf out of your book, after all, Marclai signs from across the room. Since it’s for a righteous reason for once, I agreed. It reminds me of old times.

“I’d be impressed if he can pull this off.” He pulls off his glasses and rubs at his eyes. “Truth be told, I kinda hope he does.”

He will, if I’m backing him up.

-----

Okay, he’s impressed.

The Special Reconnaissance Unit had decided, in conjunction with General Naveau and the rest of intelligence, that the tip was genuine, and too good of a wave not to ride. 

In the chaos provided by the ‘accidental detonation’, a small taskforce composed of volunteers stormed the place, and rescued the surviving prisoners - Four’s doctor among them. The base itself was heavily bombed to erase any evidence of the taskforce’s intrusion.

When Four returned from Azerbaijan, he was taken into custody almost straight off the plane, ferried back to headquarters, and questioned thoroughly and mercilessly, but there’s no solid evidence of his involvement, and his alibi was flawless.

He was even more pleased when the Major General decided to unofficially punish Four, anyway. He sure couldn’t say no to the offer.

“So… you’re my bitch for the next four weeks.” He pulls the most smug, snide, shit-eating smirk he can manage, and drops a stack of dusty binders on top of the pile of documents. It’s probably got nothing on Four’s face, but damn, it feels good. “Looking forward to all the old cases you’ll have the honour to look through?”

“I hate you so much,” Four grumbles, but there’s something behind his petulance - a hint of pride, and satisfaction. He’s back.

“Aww, is that the way to talk to your master?” He chuckles, and not entirely out of spite. “Aren’t you at least a little bit grateful you’re not in a worse situation right now?”

“I guess so.” Four shrugs, pouting as he turns back to his fort of files, and hunches over the computer. “I could be stuck with old case reports and not have air-conditioning.”

He laughs heartily at Four’s sign of defeat. He thinks things over, and after a few minutes of silence broken only by the white noise of fingers tapping away on a keyboard and shuffling through papers, he spins around in his swivel chair to address the man once more. “Did you see her?”

“Nope.” The typing and shuffling don’t pause for even a moment.

“Planning to?”

“Maybe when she gives her statement at the capital.” The man slaps a stained, crinkled stack of paper onto the end of the desk. “Probably not the right time for a catch-up over coffee, though.”

“Probably not.” He agrees. Still, it all feels so… sad - this secrecy, this distance, this unfulfilled longing. “Hey, Four?”

“Hmm?”

“I hope things work out for you.”

“Thanks.” The typing and shuffling stop. A sigh - miserable, weak, human. “I hope so, too.”

-----

He thought he was done dealing with his bullshit once he’s resigned from the unit, but in true Four fashion, the man has once again proved him wrong. 

“What the fuck, Four?” He’s concerned - the man is properly dressed, but his complexion is pale, and there’s this disturbingly absent look in his eyes, but that doesn’t negate how angry he is at the former-agent putting the safety of himself and everyone around him at risk. Again. “Don’t tell me you went around looking like that - in case you’ve forgotten, you’re meant to be dead now, dumb shit.” 

Four has the gall to look up at him - straight in the eyes, then simply shakes his head. “I covered my tracks.” 

He allows Four to shove past him into his workshop, and watches as the man sheds his coat, scarf and gloves in turn, tossing it over his stained couch.

His eyes scan over his body, and stop at his right hand, which is covered in soiled, carelessly-wound bandages. The blood on it looks old. 

He rolls his eyes and lets out a groan. “Sit your sorry ass down before you fall over and break something.” He digs under his desk for his medical kit, gnashing his teeth. He gets the feeling that this will be beyond his ability to fix. “Who and how did you fuck up, this time? You look like shit.” His stomach is flipping. Four isn’t an agent anymore. This wasn’t a mission - this was personal. 

He fucked up someone as a personal errand. 

Four still won’t talk to him, but at least he’s sat down on the couch. “I know you’ve been moving around.” He reaches for the bandaged hand, grabbing Four’s wrist rather roughly. “Ticking off that hit-list you’ve been compiling, right?” 

Four is silent. He takes that as a ‘yes’. 

“Did you catch and release?” He has to reduce his questions to yes-or-no ones; his friend looks damned near catatonic at this stage. 

“No.” Ah, he spoke. “Took care of the last one.” 

“And how long ago was that?” He peels off the bandages - blood and pus and iodine soak the dressing, sticking the layers together, and there’s no way he can be as gentle with it as he’d like. “Long enough for you to take piss-poor care of a simple cut and catch an infection.” He lets out an angry huff at the state of the wound - it’s probably once a neat gash across the palm, but infection has reduced it to a swollen, discoloured, feverish mess. He starts cleaning it with disinfectant. 

Four is muttering. “I was in Dzisna.” 

“…Fuck.” He can’t find a more suitable response. “You screwed up.” It wasn’t a question, because of course he did. 

He’s only human. That place is haunted for him. No way he’d have gotten out of that unscathed. 

He tries his best to get the details out of Four over the next hour as he worked on the wound, asking him short questions and prompting him to divulge. He learns enough to piece things together: Four has been committing to some vigilante work and tracked down those who’d wronged his doctor - his woman - in that camp. He’s appointed himself judge, jury, and executioner, and hit a roadblock when it came to his final victim. 

The sergeant in charge of the camp; the man who’s allowed for the vicious abuse of his woman during her imprisonment there. 

“No wonder you snapped. Damn it, Four.” He glances over at Marclai, making sure his patient is held still, before he tugs the piece of rusty, chipped scalpel out of Four’s palm. The man jolts, but the movement is much weaker than anticipated. “I know you have a lot of mechanical parts in you, but news flash: you’re still human. You have feelings. You’re not invincible.” He starts to suture the swollen, infected mess as best he can. “Don’t put yourself into stupid-ass situations like that, you extra son-of-a-bitch.”

Four doesn’t retort. He finds himself feeling too sorry for the man to scold him anymore, however much he deserves it. “Stay here for a while.” He suggests, and Marclai nods in agreement. “I have to order some shots for the technicolour mess that is your hand, and until you’re better, you’re staying here. I don’t want you passing out somewhere out there and risk exposing all of us.” 

“Until I’m better, huh?” Four lets out a pathetic little snort. 

I know; for people like us, things may never truly get better. Still– “Until you’re good enough to go back to your woman.” He tries to be firm. “No more stupid shit. Your woman doesn’t deserve to see you looking as fucked up as you do now.” 

“Okay.” Four’s response has an edge of his obnoxious sarcasm, but when he opens his mouth to reassert his message, he fancies he can see tears in the former-agent’s eyes. 

“Go lie down before you fall over.” He walks off; Marclai has long since disappeared. He understands it well - space and time are the only things that can make it better, now.

We’re all only human, after all. 

[ssteezyy]

Ask the Cat Doc: Cat Sucking on Tail, Spraying Cat, Cat’s Personality Changed and More

Welcome to our regular “Ask the Cat Doc With Dr. Lynn Bahr” segment! Once a month, Dr. Bahr answers as many of your questions as she can, and you can leave new questions for her in a comment.

Dr. Bahr graduated from the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine in 1991. Unlike most veterinarians, she did not grow up knowing that she would become a veterinarian. “It was a cat who got me interested in the practice and I am forever grateful to him,” said Dr. Bahr. Over the course of her veterinary career, Dr. Bahr found that the lifestyle of cats has changed dramatically. As the lifestyle of cats has changed, so did Dr. Bahr’s client education. In addition to finding medical solutions, she also encourages owners to enrich their home environments so that their cats can live long, happy, and healthy lives.

This new understanding led Dr. Bahr to combine her passion for strengthening the human-animal bond with her veterinary background and knowledge of what animals need and want to start her own solution-based cat product company, Dezi & Roo, inspired by two cats of the same names.

For more information about Dezi & Roo and their unique and innovative cat toys, please visit their website.

Cat’s personality changed after being on Prednisolone

Hi Dr. Bahr, In February my 17-year-old male kitty started on 8mg daily Methyl Prednisolone to treat GI disease. He’s tolerating it well, has gained back some weight and his personality has perked up too. Perhaps as part of his feeling better he’s started picking fights with my other kitty, a 7 year-old female. I think it’s to get attention – he wants the bed she’s lying in usually. I have read your article about kitty boredom and I am working in more play time with him, but do you think he could be experiencing a bit of ” ‘roid rage”? I realize this is kind of a weird question, but wanted to find out if this medication could cause personality changes. Thanks! – Louise

Hi Louise,

Congratulations on having a 17-year-old cat. You are blessed. I am so happy he is gaining weight and feeling better but sad to hear he has now started to pick fights with your other kitty. While most cats tolerate steroids well with few side effects, there is no reason to believe they have absolutely no ill effects on the body, physically or mentally. If this is a completely new behavior and the only thing that has changed in your cat’s life is the addition of medication, then it is possible it is making him a little crankier. There are certainly many other possibilities as well. It is not uncommon for me to see cats that have become feeble or those dealing with chronic diseases to begin feeling more vulnerable and less tolerant of housemates. Perhaps they lash out as a way to show their strength and hide their weakness, or they could just be feeling more stressed because of their weakened physical condition. It is hard for me to know exactly why your kitty has become grumpier and I would suggest you watch closely for any other signs of possible pain or distress. If these fights occur simply over a bed then it might be helpful to acquire a few more so that everyone has their own. Older cats benefit from heated beds or those that retain heat and you might want to invest in one of those for your wonderful old man. Good luck and thank you for writing in.

Cat is peeing and spraying all over the house

Dr.Bahr, we have two cats, a Siamese that is 9 and female, and a handsome blonde barn cat that is 8, and male. His name is Kitty. He is bad. He is peeing and spraying in the house. This is not new but this phase has been the worst. He has been to the vet each time his behavior gets worse and there is nothing wrong according to the ultrasounds and tests. He pees on shoes that are left on the floor, he sprayed on the dining room table the other day. I have covered all the windows so he can’t see out at night. We live in Florida and he is allowed to go out on our screened in patio and he loves it. He gets a lot of attention from all three of us humans. He is mean to our siamese, Mischa. I have used pheromone plug ins, feliway spray, a calming collar, lavendar on cotton balls placed in area where he pees. I am afraid he is going to ruin our house which we will have to sell one day. He talks ALL the time, and we listen, and we answer him. I don’t know what else to do. He also goes outside of the litter box both pee and poop. We have 3 litter boxes. – Lynne Wyre

Hi Lynne,

I completely sympathize with your problem and understand your frustration over it. It sounds like you have done all of the common things to remedy the situation but to no avail. From your brief description, it sounds to me like there might be an underlying issue with some major stresses between Kitty and Mischa. Kitty may be uncertain of his relationship with her, causing him to feel insecure and seek ways to assert himself better. However, I cannot diagnose the actual problem or give you a remedy with the little information I have at hand and am just guessing at this point. I believe this is a good case for contacting a feline behaviorist and allowing them an in-home visit to assess your situation more thoroughly. They may find solutions for the problem or, if indicated, they may refer you back to your veterinarian for some behavioral modification medications to either reduce Kitty’s stress or build up his confidence. Good luck and let me know how it turns out for you.

Ingrid’s note: If you can’t find a local behaviorist, I can highly recommend Mikel Delgado http://www.felineminds.com/ and Daniel Quagliozzi https://gocatgosf.com/ Both offer remote consultations.

Cat does not want to go out in safe yard

I finally have a beautiful, safe yard for my 12 year old Tuxedo to play and do her business outdoors. However she will have no parts of it, not even curious, wont go near the door, however, my 11 year old male tuxedo is loving life to the fullest. Both are fixed, not related and get along with her has the alpha cat. Got any suggestions on how I can coax her outside, Ive tried everything, like carrying her, staying with her, letting her smell the flowers, just leaving the door cracked open for her. Am I wasting my time, in that are some cats just “inside” cats? – Jeanette Eads

Hi Jeannette,

Having a safe yard for your cats to enjoy is a luxury most owners would love to have. It is nice that one of your babies is able to enjoy it. Do not worry at all that your other beautiful Tuxey girl wants no part of it. It is wonderful that you are allowing each of your cats the opportunity to choose how they want to live and she is letting you know she wants no part of it. Respect her wishes and let her enjoy life inside where she knows she is safe and loved dearly.

Siamese cat is sucking her tail

Hello, I’m Carol , and I have a Siamese that is now ten years old & her name is Jenni Leigh & she keeps on sucking her tail why is that? Jenni Leigh also has a problem with screaming when she goes to the Loo & she is on dry food from the vet. – Carol Graydon

Hi Carol,

It is not typical of cats to scream when eliminating and I am concerned that Jenni Leigh may be experiencing some pain and discomfort that is causing her to do so. Please have a veterinarian check her out thoroughly. If she were my patient, besides getting a complete history, I would perform a rectal exam, check her anal glands, palpate her spine, and collect urine, stool, and bloodwork. In this situation, I consider x-rays to be very important and one of the best ways to evaluate her tail, spine, pelvis, and entire skeleton. As a side note, Jenni Leigh might benefit from the introduction of canned foods into her diet if not contraindicated by another disease process she could be dealing with. Since I am not sure why you are feeding a dry food from your vet, I do not have enough information to make a comment on her diet at this time. Hopefully, the proper diagnostics will reveal the cause of Jenni Leigh’s problems and she will find relief soon.

Cat overgrooms her belly

This is a question for the cat doctor. My spayed female cat has odc. She over washes her area around the spayed area out to her anal area. She has over wash so much, her skin is very red. How can I get her to stop ODC, over washing that area and let it heal? – Patricia

Hi Patricia,

Was your cat recently spayed or did that occur a long time ago? It would be important for me to know in order to address the issue. I have seen many cats overgroom their belly for a variety of reasons. If she is an older girl, I would first look for evidence of abdominal pain from conditions like IBD, pancreatitis, or kidney disease. It is not uncommon for cats with urinary tract infections to present with bald abdomens and a urinalysis will help rule that out as a cause for your kitty’s problem.

Allergic dermatitis is a very common reason cats obsessively lick their bellies and she should be evaluated and treated for that possibility if indicated. Finally, some cats that are extremely bored or stressed will spend their time grooming as a way to alleviate their anxiety. This should only be determined once all medical reasons have been ruled out.

If she was recently spayed and is compulsively licking, I would examine her closely to see if there are any sutures left in the incision site or if this is a reaction to the sutures.

A visit to your veterinarian should help you find the answer to why she is over grooming and will be more helpful than simply trying to stop her from doing it. Hopefully, it will be a simple solution and she will be a happy girl with lots of new hair on her tummy soon.

Do you have a question for Dr. Bahr? Leave it in a comment!

The post Ask the Cat Doc: Cat Sucking on Tail, Spraying Cat, Cat’s Personality Changed and More appeared first on The Conscious Cat.

[palindromepaladin]

The Novicemancer

By Rixon Grey

           The first time I brought something back to life went quite well, and I think that is why the next few times went so poorly. There really is some truth to beginner’s luck, how you need to fail a few times before you can say you’ve done well in earnest. Pride outweighs sincerity often, which is a bitch for efficiency’s sake.

           More than pride though, I do have a problem with death. The last sigh, the heat leaving, when that last thought wings through all tresses of a fearful brain and it is a sheepish: oh. Admittedly I am inclined to kill those around me. Necromancers get lumped together for obsession regarding death, which is prejudiced. I, however, uphold the stereotype. Other children of the Black God always looked down at me, dismissively and with pompous disdain, ‘God, he’s one of those.’ Pride is a sin, arrogance is rude.

           I take it all in stride and try to practice my craft in solitude. This is not only due to my unfortunate craving for la mort but out of necessity. Efficiency is key. Most civilized peoples will not simply shun a necromancer, but will likely pull the ol’ torch-and-pitchfork routine of driving out evil from their provincial dwelling. Larger cities are worse, their pitchforks tend more to resemble metal spears and torches are replaced with the pop of guns. The powder reeks to hell, and it will ruin your clothes.

           Better then to live the nomadic, hermetic, lifestyle. This is pleasant enough, assuming you have a way to keep your mind busy and uncluttered with a hatred for the social. Resentment towards clustered people often leads to want for mass murder. This gets you caught, and probably hanged. Or burned, if you ambitiously go the more extravagant route of harvesting the soul of your victim’s Nanna. Villagers and peasants alike find the courage to revolt more accessible if their harasser is more intimate.

           I can say with pride that I have avoided killing a human person for months now, and have not resurrected a human soul… since my first.

           “You’re a cunt,” was the first phrase I heard by my only friend and most loathing of resurrections, Liam. I have heard the phrase more since then. Liam was, and will forever be, thanks to me, fourteen. He died gasping for air within the -evidently too deep- waters of a local pond. His mother-made socks caught on amphibious tree roots under the murky water. I found him fishing.

           “I told you I need to practice, or I may fail again.” I was standing over the mushed remains of what I believed to have once been a middle-aged man. The trail I had been heading down for a few days now was grassy from disuse, still there were wagon-tracks through his pelvic area. The tracks went straight through, and well past his corpse. How inconsiderate.

           The glass orb hanging on my belt jostled with anticipation, but I calmed it with a pet from my cold hand. Liam, his ethereal form fluffed and feathered from his inexperience as a ghost, ‘stood’ beside me. He too stared at the remains, though his warped face showed disgust plain enough. I believe my face to have been calm.

           “If you raise that thing, it’ll be in pain like the others. What makes you think you’ll put him (or her) back together the right way?”

           “I don’t. That is exactly why I need to do it. Without opportunities like this I would have to grave-rob, and you know I can’t do that.” I rubbed my hands together. The sun was beginning to set, and twilight had been growing darker and colder with each passing evening. Winter’s warning slithered out from the brittle ground, looking more to me like a warm invitation of the desolation to come. Death all around made reanimation tricky, but the objects of such experiments plentiful.

           “Well I won’t watch this. I’m turning away.” Liam supposedly turned his form around, but to be honest he looked the same amorphous thing to me no matter which way he floated there.

           I nodded dismissively and began to dig in. I underestimated the rate of decay which had lay waste to this unfortunate thing. Try making a human skeleton out of oatmeal. Sew together lumps of chili hamburger to create the sinewy musculature which allows the surgical precision I was trying to achieve. This is what I had to work with. There was fungus under the wet-paper sternum, and all I could think of was that dish I had in Aigan years ago. Aigan was a city in the Coritza peninsula famous for their morels stuffed with scamorza.

           After a half a spool of thread and suppressed gags, I figured whatever I had sewn together looked more like a human now than it ever would have again without my help. Of course, the eyes had rotted out, so the sight would be an issue to overcome, but I knew this trick from the old druid to fix up a false-sight. It would be a blessing anyway, wouldn’t want this fellow peering into any bodies of water or silver spoon.

           “It’s over, Liam.”

           “So you’ve decided not to perform the ritual?”

           “No, of course I will, I meant the gross part is over.”

           “It’s all gross, tell me when you’re really done.”

           I rolled my eyes, and pushed up the sleeves of my loose-fitting doublet. They were damp with the day’s labor. I began reciting some overtly simple charms out of habit. I knew they were only used by old world wizards and “wise” men to calm their anxieties before a big spell, but they had been so ingrained into my use of magic by the old druid that I had to make an effort to stop myself; which I did not feel like doing at that moment.

           That being done I brought the needle into the tip of my pock-marked thumb. Blood emerged like an old friend, greeting me with warmth and pleasantries before I cast it down upon the flesh construct. I have seen shaman men in their quaint villages slide a dagger across their palm, or rip out the heart of some virginal girl to gather what I had just done with a needle. Magic is funny in that way: we are all quite stupid about it.

           A few more words, with a lot of feeling, and the life-energy which used to inhabit this body was ripped from its other worldly resting place back to the planes of existence. The man quivered. Admittedly when I had dug through the corpse I discovered it in fact had once been a man, though now it was androgynous. Out of respect for its assumed personality, I have and will refer to my construct as a man.

           He seized from the discomfort of what it is to be. Every feeling thing in his body was sending signals up to his brain at once and it was too much. In a moment I tried to freeze bits of him, the legs and arms first, followed by the lower gut. Chilling his blood to temperatures even lower than the now-evening air. He would live if I could isolate how he did so. My fingers wove the cold through him, channeling the invisible fires of power which littered our world to become frigid vessels inside this man. He groaned, a noise reminiscent of a goat or swine.

           Liam gagged, which amused me in the abstruse way in which sentient beings adore the suffering of others without a hint of maliciousness. A thin smile stretched across my face. Call me married to the job, because it was moments like these that made all the toil worth my time. I could never imagine doing anything else with my life.

           Slowly I began warming the writhing thing on the ground to help the blood flow once more, after the seizing had subsided. Little by little the man came back to us. You could see it in the twitch in his ruddy cheeks, the reflexive twisting of face and fingers, his little toes gripping dirt. Birth of new life hardly interested me. This was my pregnancy budding to fruition: I had just done more with my mind than any woman with her body. Any man who has felt the pride swell in his chest after building a house has never been so ecstatic as I have with my research.

           He screamed. I nearly shed a tear. It would take time for the thing to get used to living, and of course my magic was rudimentary; eventually this thing would fall apart and go further into the earth than any natural death. Magical disposal of waste seems more efficient by far than anything nature could have concocted out of mud and running water. I bent over to help him up and this was when Liam turned back to the scene.

           “Oh God you’ve actually done it,” I could hear the jealousy in his voice, even if he could not. “Look at it, that abomination, I feel as if I’m chucking but I know I’m not. Necromancer, are you so evil that you’ll let him exist for much longer?”

           I bent at the knees and grabbed my baby’s shoulders. I am not the strongest man, surely I have sacrificed the bulk of the beast for the intellect of a learned being, however I managed well enough to hoist him up and prop him against a nearby tree. Light flickered from my finger tip, my mock candle, and I used it to examine closely the body. Oh damn.

           The guts were leaking out and spilling to his legs. Mostly made of pus and viscera, the leakage gooped down and pooled in the creases of his pelvic area. He huffed weakly and searched for his surroundings with languid turns of his head. I had forgotten momentarily to give him the sight. The guts were a priority, and then his heart, and I would have to find strength to burn light into his eyes after a while. I was tiring fast from the spells and knew that without sleep or food I would soon look close to my creation. Well, closer.

           I took both my hands and cupped them together, trying to scoop the mash and force it back into the shoddy sutures. No dice. The bulging gut contained more pressure in it than I had been able to create. The more I agitated the gut, the more the sutures opened and the more slime wet my hands.

           I grabbed the man by the legs and shoulders and began to carefully set him back on the ground. He fought me, out of fear of course, but I smacked his forehead with the thick of my palm and he quieted.

           “Just leave it…” Liam paced behind me. Even though he made no footstep, I felt his presence as I felt all the forces of the world around me. His lack of contentedness frustrated me, as it was distracting. I would have told him to leave, but were he to part from me his essence would split and he would be lost to the cosmic void. I bared his childish protesting with the stoicism a parent need muster from nothing.

           I would have to either re-suture the mass of flesh compiled at the base of his spine, or add more stitching. I chose the latter, and started puncturing flesh with the bone needle. The man beneath me struggled and started up with the screaming again. I, again, smacked him and this calmed him momentarily. Had I whiskey or any civilized anesthetic I would have used it, probably, however I had none and would have to make peace with the torture I was inducing. A life filled with agony was still better than any death. I whispered calming charms into the man’s ears.

           After what felt to be an hour of more work, stitching and shoving, forcing life into the unwilling, I tried once more to get the man to stand. He was exhausted and I sympathized. I gritted my teeth and threw the corpse-man to his feet.

           “I told you to live and you will.”

           “Necromancer…” Liam made his way over to me and placed a cold breeze of a hand at my back.

           “Liam if you are going to continue sulk, then leave me and dissipate into the ether, but if you want to remain one solid consciousness I suggest you clam up!” Parents must leave scars on their children too. I shoved him away with invisible, yet very real, real force.

I gripped tight the man’s arm and steadied him as he swayed left and right. With my other hand I patted his jaw, gently then with increasing force. Still he limply swayed and tried desperately to fall and die. My pats turned swiftly to slaps, and then with one furious backhanded strike the jaw flew off and thudded into some mud some ways away.

I swore and let the thing collapse. I started to walk away, but Liam stopped me.

“You can’t let it lay there and waste away,” his tone was stern and he knew that I would know that he was correct. It was wrong, objectively, to let it suffer like that. I spun around and shot forth a beam of green light into the skull of the agonized thing. He disappeared. I looked at Liam and nodded. He returned the gesture and strode up to me.

“You’re going to do this more, aren’t you?” He asked in reluctance for an answer.

“If I don’t, when the time comes for me to resurrect someone or thing for reasons of importance, I will be ill-prepared. That will not be allowed to happen.” At that Liam for a while was silent. We walked in near darkness, as the moon was obstructed by wispy clouds and shaggy trees.

“Well, try to be less of a cunt about it.”

I smirked. The next time will be better. It may be that more supplies are needed, and perhaps more preparation for arising problems should be implemented. Books are always a welcome addition to my repertoire; however, I did not think knowledge to be my weakness as much as application was. Practice was what I needed, and maybe a fresher body.

Pride is not efficient. Arrogance will bag you no more friends than will a head full of lice. Still, what am I if not genuine? I looked over to Liam with the same look I would give a nursing calf.

“No.”

[moschinocap01-blog]

Bug-Out Bag Necessities

You by no means know once you could possibly have to just moschino dress pick up and flee. Just about every survivalist is familiar with the key to survival is preparing. And a person in the primary points you can do to organize will be to have a very bug-out bag stuffed with the most critical survival merchandise. In the following paragraphs, I'll share with you the 12 most critical things I like to recommend you have in your bug-out bag: 1. Very first and foremost, a map of one's bordering space. And i am conversing a true map-not a GPS, not a mobile telephone with GPS-the authentic factor. If SHTF, you might be not destined to be capable to count on electronics; you're planning to need being equipped to read through a map to learn where you're and the place you're going! 2. In addition to a map, you can expect to desire a fantastic compass. I'd actually propose a compass watch-less to carry and serves two uses. The vast majority of us may get a sense of way through the use of the solar and stars, but possessing and employing a compass is usually a considerably much more correct way of navigating. 3. Either some strike-anywhere matches stored within a water-resistant container or some top quality cigarette lighters. Fire is simply as critical to human beings now mainly because it was ten,000 a long time back. And indeed, you can begin a hearth devoid of present day signifies, but why? If all it's going to take is really a waterproof container with matches inside it or even a lighter, you should not allow it to be more difficult on oneself! four. A Swiss Military Knife! A multi-use knife, with scissors, screwdriver, can opener, and so forth., will come in really moschino barbie useful. And naturally, the blade can be employed like a weapon if have to have be. Having said that, it truly is much more probable for use in food items preparation. Try to look for a top quality Swiss Military Knife, that's compact and durable. five. A water-resistant flashlight together with extra batteries and an extra bulb. The batteries and bulb you may wish to continue to keep inside a zip-lock bag to be sure they continue to be dry. Ideally you won't must utilize the flashlight extremely often, but there may moschino online be occasions when it can be necessary. six. A first Support Package can be an complete ought to. Hold your fingers crossed that you'll hardly ever should utilize it, but it really is good to acquire just in case. Certainly, there are certain essentials you will want from the package (band-aids, suffering reliever, antiseptic spray or ointment, gauze, ace bandage), but after you provide the necessities, the rest is up to you. You could want to incorporate sunblock, bug spray, a suture package, surgical tape, etcetera. 7. An excellent pair of sun shades and even a set of snow/ski goggles will reward you. Based on exactly where you will be while in the world, the sunshine is usually extremely brilliant and blinding. Not merely will sunglasses or goggles defend your eyes through the sun, however they will likely secure them in the elements-trying to discover by way of rain, wind, or snow can be challenging. 8. Fireplace Logs/Bricks. You can expect to choose to have a very handful of these for the people times when it may be as well windy or moist to get started on a fire with kindling as well as a match or lighter. Yet again, fire is essential, and because now we have modern-day, practical strategies to begin a fireplace, use those means! Do not allow it to be harder on by yourself than it's important to! 9. Okay, this is certainly intending to feel foolish, but after you seriously imagine about it, it truly is like DUH! Bathroom Paper! Yep, I stated it, rest room paper. Belief me, you'll be happy you introduced it. Leaves will perform within a pinch, but it's just a lot of nicer to generally be ready to tug out that roll of white, fluffy things! 10. Now with the evident stuff-extra apparel. What type of apparel will depend on exactly where you're and exactly where you might be scheduling on going. Watertight gear, thermal underwear, added socks, gloves, and also a thermal blanket tend to be common. Bear in mind when packing that temperature can improve dramatically, specifically in the evening, so be geared up. eleven. Plus the other obvious supply-plenty of foodstuff and water. A couple of water bottles plus some h2o purification tablets absolutely are a good idea. Food-wise, trail-mix, canned tuna, canned beans, and some sort of weighty, dense bread will be the things I recommend. Definitely, this food items and drinking water will not last you long, so one of your most vital matters to look for once SHTF and you require to flee is an effective supply of h2o and a lot more foodstuff. twelve. As well as the final thing I like to recommend which individuals generally manage to ignore? A fantastic high-quality bag to hold all this stuff! Never skimp-out! Can you picture carrying all this stuff on the back again, only to possess a strap break or the base tear? This bag would be the home to all your survival gear. Would you absolutely furnish the within of a shack with costly products? No! You want to keep your highly-priced things in a very protected house that may face up to the elements and protect your objects. Perfectly, it's exactly the same using your bug-out bag. You'll want to protect your survival items-they may perhaps end up getting all you might have.